David Coulthard on the Austalian GP

David Coulthard analyses the field after the Bahrain Grand Prix and looks ahead at this weekend's second round in Melbourne while offering ideas to improve the F1 show

After months of speculation we finally got some facts from the Bahrain season opener. Red Bull Racing has picked up where it left off last year with the fastest package – that was a dominant pole position and race performance from Sebastian Vettel until his technical hitch. This handed a dream start to Fernando Alonso at Ferrari, and a small slice of history. Winning your first race with Ferrari – just like Kimi Raikkonen and Nigel Mansell – must be a very special feeling.

After pre-season testing my biggest surprise was that McLaren was so far off the pace – a whole second off pole. Lewis Hamilton seemed happy enough with that, and I couldn't believe it when he said he was overwhelmed by the qualifying performance – I think underwhelmed was the word he was looking for! I found that a bit confusing given he is used to winning.